Translated material
Idol's repentance
“Tell me, is he a devil or a god…?” - this unique poetic performance with the participation of Valentin Gaft and the Vladimir Minin Chamber Choir will take place on March 18 in the Concert Hall named after. Tchaikovsky.
Three years ago, the famous artist offered Sovremennik his original text - sometimes deadly serious, sometimes popular - and on its basis the play "Gaft's Dream" was born. Phantasmagoric dialogues of various characters with Stalin, now and then scratching the ear and nerves, were then played out on stage in a dialogue with Alexander Filippenko. The performance was a success. And Gaft ... closed it!
Three years ago, the famous artist offered Sovremennik his original text - sometimes deadly serious, sometimes popular - and on its basis the play "Gaft's Dream" was born. Phantasmagoric dialogues of various characters with Stalin, now and then scratching the ear and nerves, were then played out on stage in a dialogue with Alexander Filippenko. The performance was a success. And Gaft ... closed it!
He wants to read alone. No directorial intervention. Without a stage partner. But finding confirmation of their bubbling emotions in the music of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Kancheli - those of his contemporaries in the twentieth century, who became the tuning fork of time.
Gaft's entire poem is a reflection on who Stalin is for us, in the leader's conversations with Marshal Zhukov, the fawning Zyuganov or a prisoner from the camp with his "Barak asked you to spit in your mug." There are a lot of sharpness in the text. A bunch of vulgarities. Such a Gaft.
“Our state is arranged in such a way that whoever you poke is the criminal,” Valentin Gaft boils. “But my father, who went through the whole war and was all wounded, sometimes said: “Stalin is not enough!” I witnessed his irreconcilable argument with his own brother, which ended with him throwing a clay statuette of Stalin from the fourth floor. My father didn't talk to him anymore...
Isn't it the same in our country now? Some shout: “Stalin is not enough!” others are furiously disavowing their history. Something is unresolved. Somewhere there is no point.
That is why the conductor Vladimir Minin is extremely interested in the idea: “It is in the air! We undertook to express the attitude of the creative intelligentsia to this figure not in postulates, but in an artistic form. And how convincing it will be - everyone will decide for himself.
... At the rehearsal, something amazing happens: the masterful Gaft obeys the conductor Minin like a silk one. Once at the epicenter of the reference chorus, he seems to be shocked at how the sounds resonate with his own emotions, for which any word is too narrow, and even explosive acting power is not enough.
Here is the "Lullaby" of Dunaevsky casts a sweet dream on the country. Yes, the "Potemkin village" - and the composer is a genius, and Stalin is oh so pleased with the effect. He also recognizes Shostakovich as a genius, especially for the Leningrad Symphony: “The hand did not rise to shoot you ...” Both Rakhmaninov and Kastalsky, a spiritual composer banned in Soviet times, sound.
The dialogue between Stalin and Zhukov is especially difficult for Gaft: after all, the artist-author now plays alone for two. To convey the bitter aftertaste of the war, the song "Valenki" is performed, but with such a touch that only Minin artists can give. The conductor seeks perfection from them: “There must be an anguish, but ... more than a whisper ... After all, a husband, son, brother, father died in every family. You can’t write this in notes! ”
“You sing so,” Gaft tells the chorus, “that the language is taken away. No, no, now I can’t read this like some notes on a tram ticket - I can’t ... I’ll pull myself up!
The rehearsal is over. And to us, her witnesses, the artist adds in the heat of the moment: “I want the idol to repent before those who worship him. Let him say “I'm sorry!” in front of them! for their crimes."
Natalia KORENEVA